AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > March > 02
Friday, March 2, 2007
The inimitable LaRoche returns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried: Adam LaRoche showed up with the Pirates to play his old team Friday wearing No. 96. “First game, forgot my jersey,” he said, unable to keep from laughing.
(LaRoche said he thought he gave the jersey to team equipment managers Thursday before he drove over to stay at his home at Reunion Country Club outside Orlando Thursday night. But anyway, had to happen to him, right?)
So I’m talking to him in the visitors’ clubhouse here at the Disney Empire and we start to head to the field. The tunnel to the visitor’s dugout is directly to the left of the clubhouse door, but LaRoche turns right and starts heading down the long hallway the other direction _ towards the Braves clubhouse.
“You’re kidding, right?” I say to him, figuring he’s playing up the absent-minded thing. “No, I’ve never been over here,” he says innocently.
After I point him in the right direction, we make it to the visitors’ dugout, and the procession starts. One-by-one, then two-by-two, Braves players and coaches come over to hug LaRoche, rub his red beard, ask about his wife and kids, razz him about any and everything.
“This is what you get when you get traded,” shortstop Edgar Renteria says, turning him around to look at the 96 on the back of his black jersey.
(By the way, LaRoche said he’s wearing No. 25 this season, “In honor of Andruw Jones.”)
Pirates PR man Jim “Jimmy T” Trdinich enters the dugout and says he needs to check on numbers, since the Pirates have had a few recent changes. I point out to him that LaRoche also has a new number because he forgot his jersey.
Trdinich glances, smiles, says, “He sure did. And he’s wearing 96. Good job, Adam.”
They love him in Pittsburgh _ his teammates, coaches, manager, and especially the fans. He was a huge hit at FanFest. They’re looking for him to bring some of the Braves’ winning ways to Pittsburgh, to help show the young guys and guys who’ve only been on perennial losing teams, to help show them how to go about things.
“Ol’ Rochy,” as Bobby Cox calls him, says he learned an awful lot watching John Smoltz and Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones and other Braves veterans over the past three years, and said it was a luxury being able to operate “in the shadows” during that time, with those guys deflecting most of the attention.
(Well, until a certain play involving a certain Washington Nationals baserunner and a Braves first baseman last May, after which LaRoche was often front-and-center on Atlanta talk shows and headlines, first for his mistake in not getting to the base in time, then for his three-month hitting surge that propelled him to a .285-32-90 season and a .915 OPS that ranked 10th in the National League.)
Anyway, the Braves were, to a man, thrilled to see him Friday. It’s no exaggeration to say he was as popular in the clubhouse as any player they’ve had in recent years. And LaRoche, who played golf with John Smoltz, Jeff Francoeur and Smoltz pal Tiger Woods recently, said he misses his Braves friends and wishes he could see them more often, but that he’s happy where he’s at.
And you could tell he was being sincere when he said it.
“It’s not a situation where I wish was back over here,” he said. “It’s great to see these guys, but I’m happy where I am now. I really like it in Pittsburgh. So far it’s been awesome. They’re trying to build on last year, keep it going.”
The Braves traded LaRoche and a fringe outfield prospect to Pittsburgh for lefty closer Mike Gonzalez, who’ll be a setup man and part-time closer this year as long as Bob Wickman stays healthy, and top shortstop prospect Brent Lillibridge, who looks 16 but has put up huge numbers in the minors and impressed all the Braves who’ve seen him with his smooth defense.
“I think [the trade] was pretty good for both sides,” LaRoche said, echoing what every Brave I asked said earlier this morning. They all miss LaRoche, but they all like what the addition of Gonzalez means for their bullpen, and most of them seem to believe rookie Scott Thorman will do just fine at first base.
“I’m honestly rooting for Thorman,” LaRoche sid. “I’ve always liked him. I hope he tears it up. I hope they’re not going to start platooning him. I don’t want to see him have to do that at this point of his career.”
As I’ve said a bunch of times, you guys would’ve really dug this guy if you could’ve spent some time with him. As genuine and down-to-earth as they come.
Dawn of a new era: It’s official, the Braves are moving into a new era. Anyone doubting that should see the cover of the new media guide, which was handed to me literally two minutes ago. There are two, and only two, players on the cover. There’s no mention of 14 division titles. Just the logo, the tomahawk, and “2007 Media Guide.”
The two players? Jeff Francoeur and Brian McCann, shaking hands on the field at the end of a win.
They might as well have put “The New Era Is Here” across the top.
Then again, they didn’t really need to. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
We’re finishing off Cash week: Not that every week isn’t Johnny Cash week here at the Braves/Man In Black, but we’ve tried in our small way to appreciate the legend on the week of his 75th birthday. We’ll go a different direction today, with a (very) contemporary song, “Hurt,” he covered and made his own with inimitable voice and style, and a incredibly powerful, emotional video that may never be surpassed in that art form. Seriously, it’s the best music video ever.
It begins and ends with a frail Johnny, leaning on his guitar, sitting at piano, sitting at the head of a table of food, his gnarled hands shaking, at one point his recently deceased wife June looking down on him from the stairs. Interspersed throughout is black-and-white footage of young, vital Johnny performing, aiming his guitar like a rifle, riding the rails, goofing around with June. If you’ve not seen it, you really should. It’s utterly moving.
Rocker Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) said he was at first upset to learn Cash was covering his song. But after hearing the from-the-gut version in Johnny’s gravelly baritone, Reznor said he was humbled and honored.
“HURT” by Trent Reznor
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that’s real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar’s chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feeling disappears
You are someone else
I am still right here
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
